Summer movie season 2008 has produced one great film, generated a half-dozen pictures that have grossed more than $100 million and appears to be on the way to a second consecutive record year.

Before last year, there was much wringing of hands over a continuing box office slump. But the movies rebounded in 2007 and are doing even better in 2008, with box office receipts so far this summer up by 6 percent over the previous year.

While some of that increase, as always, is due to higher ticket prices, this summer’s box office has been higher than 2007’s for five consecutive weeks.

Part of the reason for that jump can be attributed to week after week of heavily hyped films hitting theaters. But it’s also likely that the national economic slump and spiraling gas prices are helping, not hurting, the movie business.

Movies tend to thrive when times are tough, because they are relatively cheap compared to sports events, concerts and other outings, Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, told The Associated Press. 

“Audiences are obviously gravitating toward the movies as their first choice for entertainment,” Dergarabedian said. “It doesn’t take that much gas to get to the local multiplex. That might have a little something to do with this, as well.”

In any case, summer 2008 has already seen two movies cross the $300 million mark — “Iron Man” at $309 million after two months in theaters, and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” at $300 million after six weeks.

“Iron Man” was both a critical and popular hit, getting positive notices from 93 percent of critics whose work is compiled on the Rotten Tomatoes Web site. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” wasn’t quite as popular with critics, getting a 77 percent rating.

The best movie of the summer and of the first six months of 2008 is “WALL-E,” the brilliant new film from Disney/Pixar that opened last Friday. It got 97 percent positive reviews, one of the highest percentages ever on Rotten Tomatoes.

“WALL-E” topped the box office last weekend at $62.5 million. While it didn’t have the $100 million-plus openings of many summer blockbusters, it is a film that will run for months rather than a couple of weeks and will likely be in the top four or five movies come the end of summer.

Not everything this summer has been a hit with critics or audiences, however. The worst reviewed movie of the summer is “The Love Guru,” the Mike Myers comedy that got just 19 percent positive reviews and has taken in just $25 million at the box office.

But the summer’s biggest stiff has to be “Speed Racer,” a movie with hundreds of millions invested in it that has taken in just $42 million at the box office and received only 36 percent positive reviews.

Two middlingly reviewed films appear to be headed toward average box office for a big summer. They are “Sex and the City,” which got 51 percent positive reviews and has grossed $140 million, and “Get Smart,” at 53 percent with the critics and $77 million after two weeks in theaters.

Also somewhere in the middle — and disappointing for Disney, which expected more at the box office — is “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” which got 66 percent from the critics and grossed $137 million, far less than its predecessor. Disney has stated that it erred in releasing the film in May rather than in the holiday season.

While critics and audiences have tracked closely so far this summer, that’s likely to change this week.

“Hancock,” the Will Smith superhero movie, was tracking below 40 percent in reviews early in the week. But Smith owns Independence Day, and the movie is almost certain to open with more than $100 million.

Even though the summer isn’t close to being over on the calendar, it’s headed toward the end of the big releases in movieland.

The most anticipated films remaining to be released are: “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” the fantasy/comic book adaptation from director Guillermo Del Toro, July 11; “The Dark Knight,” the new Batman movie featuring Heath Ledger’s final performance, July 18; “Pineapple Express,” the latest from contemporary comedy master Judd Apatow, Aug. 8; and “Tropic Thunder,” the Ben Stiller comedy, Aug. 15.

Of those, “The Dark Knight” and “Pineapple Express” could end up in the top handful of films of the summer.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.